Unnatural Skintone – the PRELUDE

The Old Count is a release from Fer Miniatures sculpted by Romain Van Den Bogaert. I fell in love with the sculpt the moment I saw it, and as soon as I had the chance I grabbed a copy. This is an account of how I painted it, hoping to give the bust some justice! This isn’t an exhaustive account, more a short SBS that I hope will get the salient points over in a succinct and accurate manner.

After cleaning (almost nothing and it comes in only one piece) and washing it, I primed it with Vallejo Black Primer. After it dried I airbrushed Titanium White from Liquitex Heavy Body from above building up the light.

I create a Base Coat made of 60% Gris Sombra VGC + 40% LHB Brilliant Yellow Green by airbrush and then I go straight to the shadows using 60% Gris Sombra VGC + 40% Carne Oscura VGC with the airbrush to achieve even coverage.

base and shadows

BRUSH TIME

Now brush work time! I start going on lights with a mix of Gris Sombra vgc+Brilliant Yellow Green lhv +Ochre mp adding white the more I need it.
For the shadow I am glazing base mix adding Imperial Purple gw more and more, till I use it pure.

progress

For the light in the chin area I add a little bit of Steel Blue vma to the mix to cool it more being in the lower part of the face, and will work on the shadow with Steel Blue and Dark Sea Blue vmc.

For the eyelid I make some glazing beginning with pure Royal Purple ac, then I add some Steel Blue going for the shadow adding some Imperial Purple gw for the deepest shadow. Last touch is a glazing with magenta, mixing Royal Purple ac with Red vma.

build interest and colour with glazes

I added some freckle on the head and body to make it a little more interesting. For this I used a mix of 50% Carne Oscura VGC and 50% Royal Purple AC.
Final pictures! I hope you like the final result and enjoyed the short tutorial!